Guardian Films scoops Emmy

The Guardian Films documentary Baghdad: A Doctor's Story last night won an International Emmy in New York.

The film depicts life inside Al Yarmouk hospital, one of the biggest in Baghdad, over the summer of 2006.

It was shot on a handheld camera by Omer Salih, an Iraqi doctor who left the country earlier this year after winning a Fulbright scholarship to study journalism at a small town in Indiana.

Although Salih is not seen or heard on the film, his standing as a former Baghdad emergency room doctor gained him access to the inside of one of Baghdad's busiest hospitals.

The documentary follows an emergency room doctor who frequently bemoans the fate of his hospital, a flagship facility built under Saddam Hussein in the late 70s.

Noting that 90% of the hospital's patients are treated for "war injuries", the doctor declares that Al Yarmouk "is now a field hospital in a civil war", as well as criticising armed insurgents who enter the hospital.

Guardian Films is a division of Guardian News and Media, the owner of the Guardian, Observer and the Guardian Unlimited network, which includes MediaGuardian.co.uk.

Last night's win also marks a double success for the BBC, which broadcast the Guardian's documentary on BBC2's This World strand last autumn.

The BBC also won an International News Award last night for its coverage of last summer's Lebanon conflict.

Helen Boaden, the BBC director of news, said: "Baghdad: A Doctor's Story by Guardian Films was a brilliant commission by current affairs. It took a lot of nerve and tremendous bravery on the ground, to deliver this extraordinary and memorable film."

The film will also be broadcast for the first time this week in the US on the cable channel HBO.

Founded in 1969, the Emmy awards are distributed by the International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, the largest organisation of global broadcasters, with members from nearly 70 countries and over 400 companies.

Last night's ceremony was the 28th annual event and attracted a host of media industry executives, journalists and producers.

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